Natural products - back in vogue

By John Mann2006-11-01T00:00:00

yew tree berry and needle - natural products offer myriad life-saving medicines

Source: Gorden Cragg/National Cancer Institute

Chemists are once again turning to Nature to replenish the medicine chest

The study of the chemistry of natural products can be dated to the start of the 19th century with the isolation and characterisation (but not structure elucidation) of morphine (1815), quinine (1820) and atropine (1833). These faltering first steps can be contrasted with recent total chemical syntheses of complex marine natural products like the spongistatins (1) (by Steven Ley and his team at the University of Cambridge in 2005), which are remarkable for their elegance and efficiency, and also because they have provided gram quantities of these anticancer agents for pre-clinical evaluation.

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